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Characters
Now, when it comes to video game characters and Box Art, sometimes they're just not on the same page. In the 1980's and early 1990's, the game box art were a far cry to the likeliness of video game characters (and sometimes the game itself). Here's a list of some of those games that had box art that was way off. Athena (NES, 198?) When gamers of recent eras think of Athena, they think of Athena Asamiya from The King of Fighters ''series of games. However, the legacy of Athena goes back before anybody heard of Tournament Fighting Games. During the days of the NES, she was a fighting goddess. Of course, Athena didn't look anything like she was depicted on the game box (which she looked quite muscluar and had wings), in the actual game. Athena didn't have muscles, though I'm not quite sure about her having wings as I didn't play the game. The Japanese artwork of Athena was more accurate to the game as she wore a skimpy bikini and had purple hair. Contra (NES, 1987) The original Contra came out at quite a good time for this box art (when the movie industry was filming movies where humans were at war with some kind of extratrrestrial race). The box art to the original Contra had Ray looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger's character (Col. Dutch Schaffer) from ''Predator. The Alien in the background of the game box resembled a Xenomorph from Alien. Speaking of which, a few Aliens you face in the game also reference these movies (one of which looks like a Facehugger). Dash Galaxy & The Alien Asylum (NES, 198?) This box art is also quite misleading for the game itself. Though i myself remember playing it (though I didn't get too far). To be honest Dash Galaxy on the box art looks more like Simon Belmont from Captain N: The Game Master. In fact, the entire game is nothing you would expect as far as NES games are concerned. The entire atmosphere of the game looks like those cheesy sci-fi movies from the 1950's and quite complicated to play. Demon Sword (NES, 198?) This is yet another misleading art for a game box. As you can see, the box art is depicted a western barbarian holding a multi-bladed sword. Now, it's good art indeed but it's a far cry to what the game *really* looks like. The game (as you can see in the screenshot) doesn't take place in Europe at all, it takes place in Japan as you play some Ninja/Samurai hybrid (as you use both the Demon Sword and you also throw shuriken, I happened to now by playing this one time) trying to assemble the Demon Sword. Iron Sword: Wizards & Warriors 2 (NES, 1988) Staying on the topic of swords in video games, the NES had those type of games in droves. This is a sequal to Rare's cult classic: Wizards & Warriors. Just in case you haven't noticed, the man that's supposed to be Kuroson the box art is none other than European male model: Fabio. Of course, Kuros looks nothing like the Euro model as he wears medeval armor. I've played both W&W games, I didn't didn't get far into this game (as I didn't figure out that you had to defeat the bosses with some kind of magic spell). Megaman (NES, 1987) Of course, the Blue Bomer is one of the famous video game characters that was a victim of imfamous box art. The box art has Megaman looking like some kind of 30 year old man in a badly made space suit. Of course, Megaman looks absolutely nothing like the character depicted on the game box. But what's worse about it is that Megaman's box art persona had made an appearence in Street Fighter VS. Tekken. Metal Gear (NES, 1987) Megaman may have bad box art, but Solid Snake's had his that like Ray from Contra made him look like another action actor. In Snake's case it is Michael Beihn's character (Kyle Reese) from The Terminator. This is quite accurate as Solid Snake has to go up against a good number of bosses that are robots. Phalanx (SNES, 199?) Now, I didn't play this game. But the box art for it basically *screams* inaccurate as it has nothing to do with old guys with banjos, it plays similar to that of Super R-Type or'' U.N. Squadron'', it's a rail shooter game with some kind of spaceship. Boy, is this real bad box art or what? River City Ransom (NES, 1988) I haven't played this game personally. But I know it's one of more memorable games for the NES (though not as memorable as it's bigger brother: Double Dragon). But the box art definitely is a far cry to how the characters look in the game. Because it began in Japan, the characters look quite small (known in Japan as "Chibi"). Nevertheless, this game was quite memorable with it's quirky sense of humor and the weapons you can use. Tuff E Nuff (SNES, 1992) Coming out at the dawn of the "Tournament Fighting Game Caze", Tuff E Nuff also had some of the worst box art as well and it really masked a good TFG in it's era. The game itself played like Street Fighter 2 and it had some original characters as well (only a few characters were this game's version of the SF characters, like Syoh and Zazi were the game's Ryu and Ken respectively likewise Vortz and Gadjet were like Zangief). The game also had codes where you can fight as the non-playable characters in the game. Chase H.Q.(Arcade, 1988) This Starsky & Hutch inspired game where you must use a fancy, schmantzy luxury sports car (in this case, A Porsche) to catch up and ram into the perpetrator and arrest him, also has some very interesting inspirations from previous movies and TV shows. In the case of Chase H.Q., the European Arcade Art had one of the officers (on the left) look a lot like Han Solo (Harrison Ford) from Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope. Wait, there's more. When the game came out in the United States, it had different arcade art. This time, it drew inspiration from Miami Vice as the guy closely resembles Detective James Crockett (Don Johnson). Road Blaster/Road Avenger(Sega CD, 1993) Not to be confused with the arcade game Road Blasters, Road Blaster ''(or ''Road Avenger in Europe). The game box as well as the game itself is inspired by The Road Warrior (or Mad Max) as the cars and enemies you face look a lot like the badguys Max faces. The main protagonist (who's face is rarely if at all revealed) wears similar looking clothes and drives in a similar looking car as Max. The landscape of the game (except for a brief run into a modern city in the middle and the end of the game) is also in a dry and rugged desert just like in the movie series. Though, I personally saw video of this game, and I wonder why it's called as such. It's just one, giant interactive anime as it tells you to turn left, turn right, use the brakes or turbo. Though, it isn't without any challenges, make the wrong move and you lose a life and the timing is also critical especially when you get into the late stages. The intro is also quite catchy.